This subject has just been about drama ever since jweaver835 did not get the answer he wanted and seems to be going about it in a slightly hostile way. Be patient and have a great day.
I agree with @jkopel and @reevesjack85 posts on the subject.
Great work @dan will be waiting for future updates and appreciate the effort you and your team put in.
You’re not an investor. You’re a consumer. If you don’t like the product or the service then take your money elsewhere.
Regular updates will calm fears that features promised in already released videos that have further been explained as, it will do, but can’t do now (passthrough, greyscale, software features) will either not happen, or in order to happen ship dates will have to be pushed back much farther than anticipated (4-9 months?). The truth is, in development, you many times will not have much progress week to week and @dan really doesn’t owe the community members information that one would expect in a staff meeting update week to week. Keep up the laser Thursdays, and hopefully we will start seeing some of those features being implemented and shown off!
The issue is this item is NOT in “development”. This is a product that is supposed to be in production now, with ship dates of December 2015…per their site.
Without any updates on what is happening, and what “seems” like a shift in attitude since the pre-order completed, one can’t be faulted for feeling “slightly” concerned. I’m not jumping off a bridge here, I just feel some kind of weekly update would have been nice. It’s not like we all put up $100 for a tchotchke or something.
Disagree. But I HONESTLY want to be helpful in response so PLEASE read it that way. Most of the S/W is still being written and debuged, H/W designs as of a few weeks ago were still being refined. Plastic molds were not final and power supplies had not been approved. The production line has not started. I can only assume that means the units are in “development”. The Sept 24th GF website said the first units will be shipped in December 2015 with the bulk of the pre-orders over the next few quarters. Some folks read that to mean final production in Dec. So Bailey updated the FAQ “When will my Glowforge ship?” to be very clear. Feel free to comment on my original post Realistic Expectations Thanks.
@rpegg … That is great information! Where did you find that info (H/W designs still being refined etc)? Thanks for the post.
Great original post @rpegg. Says what I wish I had originally answered to this one. Thanks for including it and thanks for the contribution to the forum.
Jack
Not in anyone place. It’s in a dozen different places in the forum and some info from videos that were linked to this forum. About a month ago they posted that the third iteration of prototype plastics had arrived for evaluation. They’ve clearly gone through several iterations of the control boards since the beginning of pre-order. There have been GF posts about how the current boards with USB and Ethernet connections (probably needed for testing) were not the ones that would eventually be in production. The demos that we have seen in the videos were prototype units with Frankenstein boards. In one very recent video Dan comments about Eva making changes to a camera control circuit board. It’s been posted several times that the power supplies were not yet approved and how hard that was to do. I think the power supplies are the primary reason why the laser tubes do not yet have variable power control. Bunch of other stuff. Lots of posts about S/W features yet to be completed. Yes it would be nice to have all the info under one link or in the FAQ. But I understand that the company has to walk a fine line on information. I’ve seen companies try to be too open and have it backfire when an insignificant disclosure blows up unnecessarily on the boards. Thanks for not taking my post the wrong way. Many people will read a post depending on their own particular mood at the time.
@rpegg, thanks. I agree, and I apologize if my attempt to keep the conversation “nice” came off as hostile in and of itself.
There are many posts scattered about the forum alluding to the current state of development. I suppose this is a natural outcome of Dan’s activities in the forum system.
Here are few that I found where he speaks either directly or indirectly to the issue(s).
A big thanks to @jkopel and @rpegg. Very helpful. Looks like I may just need to start looking at a LOT more posts, instead of just a few here and there.
no worries - think everyone on here is just trying to help. i know i for sure didnt show my best side during this thread but that was my intention. tone of voice is such a hard thing to communicate some times!
Just went back over most of Dan’s comments to this board. He has posted 150 times in the past 3 weeks (end of pre-order) almost 700 times in total. Although project status is rarely discussed there is actually quite a lot of info about what works, what doesn’t (yet), plans and shipping schedule. Takes some work to collate the comments. But what else are you going to do while waiting?
this video of Dan really sold me. Made the decision based on personal affinity rather than logical calc. But to take the personal into the logical: click on @dan or his profile picture. His user profile comes up. All the topics and replies and posts are all there in list form. Yes, some collating, curating and indexing would be helpful. But a www.discourse.org powered forum makes it easy. Folks might be or might not be familiar with these feature. Thanks @rpegg for making me think this through. Also it is very fun to go through their twitter stream to get a great perspective. I assumed when I ordered that if a product didn’t ship, the initial round of investing would cover development and I would get a refund. Maybe not. I put the notion of paying upfront before a confirmed delivery date as a risk. However, back to the original post: more pics from laser Thursday would be cool. I would like some regular updates as to development and finalizing. But don’t think we are going to get it in a structured way. I find myself wanting to make excuses for GF because I think the best of them. I’m curious at how production costs are going to impact later sales. The idea is of a low-cost 3D laser printer might hit reality. But that low cost is relative. I think of all the 4-wheelers folks have around here in Missouri I’m the odd one out not having one. It’s seen as an essential tool for anyone who spends anytime outdoors. Can’t really touch them with the features you want for under $7,000.
The math says we’re pretty safe for at least a year. The initial round of funding was expected to hold the company for 2 years (I personally believe a little less). And although their approach is innovative, there is nothing requiring new technologies so it will be just a matter of time. The only way the initial pre-orders would be at risk is if someone absconded with all the funds and say flew off to Tanzania. Oops! 
Whatever you say, you give me 30 million and I will assign someone specifically to keeping the PR going, youtube videos, vlog, and personal insights of the team members etc. Serious do you know how much more business can be generated that way? If I was Dan I wouldn’t actually be commenting unless it was very important, the mom and pop feel of a project this big could only have negative impacts on professionalism. Wasting time commenting means less time invested in the actual process of delivery which is of the greatest importance. If you are new to business none of this comes to mind. Consumers are not generally business owners so such things don’t even dawn on them. That is why you have so few novices that remain in business over time before some shark literally eats them.
As you have correctly observed:
The only thing we disagree upon is that I do not, at this time, fear being literally eaten by a shark.
Ha! Love it! Okay Dan all the best with this new business model, the moment those Glowforge’s start shipping its clear it will revolutionize many industries. All the best.
Thanks for the good humor, @Tron. 
We’re actually staffing up as quickly as we can, but the team here is so darn good and the work is so challenging that it can be hard finding the right people.
I bought into this product knowing that all of the pre orders are to be delivered by June 2016. I have to admit that Dans reply though was a little disappointing in that it could have been phrased in the same consistency that his sales pitch was made. It really gives me second thoughts about my pre order.